Started Methylation Supplements, Ended Up In The ER - And Symptoms Still Persist

[Basilico]

Something I wanted to add: you didn't mention whether you are (or suspect that you are) an overmethylator. I'm likely an undermethylator and my husband is likely an overmethylator which makes sense with how we respond to foods/supplements that are methyl donors. In the beginning, he didn't tolerate methylB12, but by taking very low doses and slowly increasing, he got to a point where he could tolerate the same sublingual methylB12 that I take. When he was taking more than he could tolerate, he got overstimulation.

Even if you were able to tolerate the methyl groups in the B vitamins you were taking, if you were consuming other things that were methyl donors (like coffee, for example) that could have been enough to push you over the threshold of what your body could efficiently deal with and might result in the overstimulation you've been experiencing.

 

[krzysiek.s]

@Eastman and @lakesarecool and @Basilico

Thank you all for your responses! I've reviewed them and will be going over them again tomorrow to take more notes on the key points.

What I am doing now is testing my reaction to a few things:

1. Coconut water
2. Nicotinic acid
3. Increasing potassium more from food than coconut water (in case bad reaction from coconut water)

Last night I had a pretty high anxiety level of around 8/10. I took 45mg of nicotinic acid over 2 hours and that seemed to help settle it down. Either it was placebo and I calmed myself down, or it did it's job and stop overmethylation symptoms.

Today when I woke up I was low anxiety, but again it kicked into gear after drinking some coconut water (I am thinking coincidence, but will keep an eye on it). Seems to have calmed down now after eating a banana + taking some more nicotinic acid.

At this point I am thinking I continue to be requiring an increased intake of potassium even though I stopped all methylation supplements, OR it could have been the niacin that works. 3rd option is, I calmed myself down by believing the niacin was working (ie: placebo). So I will continue to test these.

Do you guys have any further input?

 

[krzysiek.s]

@caledonia Hey! Would you mind helping me out here? I've read many of yours posts, plus all of your resources in your signature. I would love to hear what you think and could recommend in my case?

One thing that gave me a lot of comfort was in your signature, I think it was one of the PDF's, it said that even if you stop methylation supplements (like I have), methylation can continue running at a ramped up state. This is what I feel is happening in my case.

I have stopped all supps, but there are days where the side effects / anxiety are very low or non existent, and other days, they are quite profound and I am quite anxious.

Have you heard of these "swings", so to speak, where symptoms of anxiety come and go like that?

Is it normal to be needing to take some niacin daily for a while to slow this down? Or should I only take niacin when I feel the anxiety kicking in?

Thanks for all of your help (in your previous posts)!

 

[Basilico]

@krzysiek.s , your response made me think of an issue my husband is currently having. In the past few weeks, I've been giving him a glass of water with potassium citrate mixed in to slowly sip throughout the day (in addition to magnesium in a slow release pill). He noticed the last two times that he drank it, he developed palpitations and a really fast heart rate, which are the symptoms he usually gets when he needs electrolytes, not takes them. He was thinking that it was due to the potassium citrate, so we switched him to coconut water and he hasn't had a problem since. He's planning to revisit the potassium citrate to see if that actually was the culprit or just a coincidence.

So the idea that the coconut water could be giving you some issues is not so far-fetched, and I think that your plan to test the coconut water (I'm assuming you will discontinue it for a while, right?) is a really good idea.

Some other foods/drinks that have high potassium you might want to incorporate (besides banana):
-potato
-avocado
-V8 veggie juice

 

[caledonia]

@caledonia Hey! Would you mind helping me out here? I've read many of yours posts, plus all of your resources in your signature. I would love to hear what you think and could recommend in my case?

One thing that gave me a lot of comfort was in your signature, I think it was one of the PDF's, it said that even if you stop methylation supplements (like I have), methylation can continue running at a ramped up state. This is what I feel is happening in my case.

I have stopped all supps, but there are days where the side effects / anxiety are very low or non existent, and other days, they are quite profound and I am quite anxious.

Have you heard of these "swings", so to speak, where symptoms of anxiety come and go like that?

Is it normal to be needing to take some niacin daily for a while to slow this down? Or should I only take niacin when I feel the anxiety kicking in?

Thanks for all of your help (in your previous posts)!

Hi K,

People with COMT mutations can get mood swings. Considering you were taking methylation supplements and now you're getting bouts of anxiety, and assuming you haven't changed anything else recently that may have caused it, it does sound like COMT mood swings are what's happening.

The normal thing is to need niacin several to many times a day, every day, until the symptoms subside. It could take several weeks depending on how badly you've overdriven your methylation cycle.

I haven't really run into anyone with swings or symptoms that don't occur every day like you're having. Do you feel like you're having depression on the days when you don't have anxiety?

At any rate, if your cycle in general is ramped up, and you only dose on anxiety days, it's probably going to take longer to get it to calm down. And you're saying the anxiety is quite profound.

So my suggestion would be to dose every day, like every 4 hours, and more often if needed on the anxiety days. Ben Lynch has suggested dosing as often as every hour or even every half hour based on symptoms. You should feel a nice relaxed feeling as the niacin kicks in, or at least that's how it worked for me.

Then once the anxiety days stop, it should be ok to stop the niacin.

 

[krzysiek.s]

@caledonia thanks very much for your reply!

It's your replies in other threads + the guides you have put together in your signature that have given me most comfort when going through these 'turbulent' times. So, thank you for all of that + for your help here in this thread. I really do appreciate it.

In regards to my mutations which may affect methylation, I listed them in the original post but this thread (and that post) were quite long and so I imagine it was very easy to miss. My mutations are below;

My homozygous mutations are:

MTR A2756G
MTRR A66G
MTRR A664A
BHMT-02
BHMT-08

My heterozygous mutations are:

MTHFR C677T
VDR Bsm
VDR Taq
AHCY-01
AHCY-19
CBS A360A

So I do not have any COMT mutations and so the mood swings you suggest I feel may no longer be a possible reason behind what's happening.

I do not feel like I have depression on the "off" days where anxiety isn't an issue. It just feels like some days I am a lot less anxious than others. My main gripe is really the anxiety. The other symptoms I've had (like a bit of diarrhea etc I feel I could even put down to the anxiety).

I have been taking niacin over the last few days but in quite small doses. I started off with 10mg in a dose and built it up to around 20mg. Today I will up it to around 30mg. These are individual doses, but I do take them multiple times a day. For example, yesterday I took a total of around 120mg niacin. I am now weary of just smashing large doses of anything which could affect my methylation cycle.

Based on your replies, I have 2 trains of thought here and they are quite different to eachother.

#1: I feel that it is possible, with my methylation supplementation, that I ramped my cycle up and it is still up. This to me means I will need to continue to supplement some extra potassium, sodium and niacin to help slow things down.

OR

#2: I feel that it is also equally possible that the methylation supplements I took ramped up the cycle, which initially gave me symptoms of low potassium (which caused me to freak out and go to the ER thinking there is something wrong with my heart). And I feel it's possible all of that methylation is now normalized, but the 'traumatic' experience has caused me to have anxiety from it - and that all of the things I experience today are simply my own creation/doing.

ie: When you posted that reply yesterday, when I read it, I felt some anxiety coming on. It's like I am doing it to myself by over reading, over analyzing, over thinking everything that's happened.

So going forward, my plan of attack is to supplement some extra sodium, potassium and niacin. At the same time, I will be mindful that it is likely I am the one causing this anxiety for myself and I'll spend less time reading/analysing/looking into all of this to give my mind a break. I may also throw in some anti-anxiety supplements as suggested in another thread here, but that's it.

What do you think @caledonia ?

Thanks and have a great day guys

 

[krzysiek.s]

Had hamburgers for dinner today, something I have eaten many times before and my anxiety seemed to kick off sometime after dinner. As I think about this, I just think I am more anxious than I think I am, because I was thinking "meat has B12, if I eat meat this may spark up again" and rest assured, it did.

I doubt the meat or food had anything to do with it. Probably all mental. At least that is what I am running with.

But niacin helped, I took around 150mg over a couple of hours and it seemed to work. I imagine it is a placebo effect but I am still open to the idea that it is not placebo. But it doesn't make sense that the anxiety would come and go like that if methylation was to blame.

I will try around 200mg niacin daily and see how that works for me. Is there any possible negative to taking a dose of around 200mg daily for a week or a few weeks?

I am mostly curious as to when I would know to "stop" as I don't want to take it forever and go the opposite way with methylation.

 

[Oberon]

There's really minimal risk at taking 200mg niacin daily for a few weeks as long as you're reacting positively to it. People take a few 1000mgs for cholesterol, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety etc without any major side effects.

Stop once the anxiety is gone for a few days.

 

[caledonia]

@caledonia

So I do not have any COMT mutations and so the mood swings you suggest I feel may no longer be a possible reason behind what's happening.

I do not feel like I have depression on the "off" days where anxiety isn't an issue. It just feels like some days I am a lot less anxious than others. My main gripe is really the anxiety. The other symptoms I've had (like a bit of diarrhea etc I feel I could even put down to the anxiety).

Ok, this makes more sense according to your symptoms. I went back and read the whole thread. So you did 4 days of mega doses of methylation supps. So I would think for sure you're overmethylated and niacin would be helpful.

My suggestion would be to increase the niacin to the 50-100mg range, as suggested by Ben Lynch. For me, 80mg was the sweet spot. Basically you want to keep it below the level where you get the infamous niacin flush. If you do get it, it's not harmful and will go away in an hour or so. Then just back off on your dose a bit the next time.

As far as potassium, it is possible to get into hypokalemia in 3 or 4 days with megadoses. If you do experiment with potassium, keep the doses very low and gradually increase only as tolerated. In general though, if you're doing niacin, which is putting the brakes on methylation, your need for potassium will become less and less over time. It may be a moving target which is hard to hit.

So I guess what I'm saying is, unless you're having definite hypokalemia symptoms, you may be able to get away with just doing the niacin and slowing methylation over the next few days or weeks or however long it takes.

It won't hurt to take some extra niacin longer than you're having symptoms, to make sure they're all gone.

I knew I was "done" when all my symptoms were gone and I was getting the niacin flush at previously tolerated doses (like 80mg). I think I lowered it to 50mg, then when I got a niacin flush with that, I stopped.

If you feel like you're getting anxiety from the trauma of this experience, EFT (emotional freedom technique) could be very helpful to quickly zap it away. It's free to learn at https://www.emofree.com/

ps. if you're experimenting with electrolytes, you may want to try magnesium too. It's calming and relaxing, and works in conjunction with potassium.

pps. diarrhea could be from too much coconut water (I'm not sure of the timing of that to what you were taking, so you'll have to figure out if that is really a connection or not).

 

[krzysiek.s]

There's really minimal risk at taking 200mg niacin daily for a few weeks as long as you're reacting positively to it. People take a few 1000mgs for cholesterol, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety etc without any major side effects.

Stop once the anxiety is gone for a few days.

Thank you @lakesarecool !

I have been supplementing it again today, it must be the 2nd or 3rd day today.

I will reply in the next post in a bit more detail, for both you and Caledonia to check out

 

[krzysiek.s]

@caledonia

When you say 80mg was your sweet spot, do you mean that was the point before you got a niacin flush? ie: higher doses would result in a niacin flush?

So your advice is to find that sweet spot (whatever it is for me), and keep going with it, until I get to a point where the sweet spot starts to result in a flush.

Correct?

And then when the flush occurs at a previously OK dose, you say to lower the dose a bit and when the flush occurs again at this lowered dose, you know you are getting there, with the major sign that all of your symptoms have gone away.

Do I have that right?

Out of curiosity, when you started to get the flush at 80mg and then lowered it down to 50mg, (I am assuming this is still 50mg every 4 hours), how long did it take to then develop flush on the 50mg dose? Was it the same/next day, or were you at this lower dose for a few days/week before it got to the point where you'd still flush with it?

In regards to electrolytes, I have laid off the coconut water in favor of some kiwi fruit! I will aim for around 800mg of potassium from kiwi, then also some salt (sodium) in a water bottle plus niacin. This is my strategy to lower methylation symptoms and also take care of low electrolytes if it were the case.

I am going to my GP for blood tests in 1.5 days to test how my levels are again, to ensure they are still OK without me supplementing like 32OZ of coconut water a day anymore.

I also take 500mg magnesium daily and have been for a few years.

I am still trying to work out if this is indeed from overmethylation, or if it is all in my head. I am not sure which of those 2 options is the better one, but they're the only 2 possible things that I feel could be happening. An actual overmethylation response, OR me getting anxious over everything that's happened.

Side note: I once experimented with taking a viagra. The normal pill I think is like 100mg. So I cut it in quarters and took 25mg. Then when I was having a shower shortly after, I ended up getting lightheaded and freaking out that I was getting some type of bad response to the viagra. In truth, I didn't get a bad response (I tried it again once or twice after to confirm) and it was all in my head - based on fears of what I had read online.

So while I did not think I was that anxious before any of this happened, this whole event(s) has allowed me to look back and come to the realisation that, yes, I have had situations in the past where I have a tendency to over react.

Which is why I am not sure if this is overmethyltion or just me being a silly bastard. I have a feeling it's all in my head, but that is equally as frustrating and worrying - the symptoms of anxiety are still real either way.

Thanks for your time in reading, helping and replying. I really do appreciate your effort and time. It means a lot to me. Thanks!

 

[krzysiek.s]

@lakesarecool @caledonia

Hey guys,

Sorry for doubling up on messages here

Today after I had dinner (pretty much my only meal of the day, but it was big) which was from Red Rooster (a chicken sandwich, chicken nuggets, frozen raspberries, apple pie) my anxiety seemed to flare up within about an hour of me consuming the food.

I really hope and Imagine that this is all in my head, but have you guys in all of your past experience here on this forum encountered eating such foods flaring up anxiety symptoms or have anything to do with over driving the methylation cycle further, once it may have already been over driven?

I feel I am on a completely bizarre tangent and thought pattern here and I hope you guys shoot it down haha. Because if I have to start watching out what foods I eat, then holy shit...!

 

[caledonia]

@lakesarecool @caledonia

Hey guys,

Sorry for doubling up on messages here

Today after I had dinner (pretty much my only meal of the day, but it was big) which was from Red Rooster (a chicken sandwich, chicken nuggets, frozen raspberries, apple pie) my anxiety seemed to flare up within about an hour of me consuming the food.

I really hope and Imagine that this is all in my head, but have you guys in all of your past experience here on this forum encountered eating such foods flaring up anxiety symptoms or have anything to do with over driving the methylation cycle further, once it may have already been over driven?

I feel I am on a completely bizarre tangent and thought pattern here and I hope you guys shoot it down haha. Because if I have to start watching out what foods I eat, then holy shit...!

I have multiple chemical sensitivities. One of mine sensitivities is to nitrites, which are commonly sprayed on berries and nuts. I get anxiety from that. The organic versions of those are fine. Foods with glutamate could also cause anxiety (see my other post on the causes of anxiety).

So it could be something like that. Or it could be that the methylation cycle is still cranking and there is no relationship to what you ate - the anxiety would have flared regardless.

 

[caledonia]

@caledonia

When you say 80mg was your sweet spot, do you mean that was the point before you got a niacin flush? ie: higher doses would result in a niacin flush?

So your advice is to find that sweet spot (whatever it is for me), and keep going with it, until I get to a point where the sweet spot starts to result in a flush.

Correct?

And then when the flush occurs at a previously OK dose, you say to lower the dose a bit and when the flush occurs again at this lowered dose, you know you are getting there, with the major sign that all of your symptoms have gone away.

Do I have that right?

I worked out the 80mg via muscle testing. So I didn't actually try 100mg. But the rest - kept taking it until the previously tolerated amount caused the flush - is how it worked out for me.

Out of curiosity, when you started to get the flush at 80mg and then lowered it down to 50mg, (I am assuming this is still 50mg every 4 hours), how long did it take to then develop flush on the 50mg dose? Was it the same/next day, or were you at this lower dose for a few days/week before it got to the point where you'd still flush with it?

It wasn't too much longer that the 50mg also caused a flush - I would say within a couple of days.

I am still trying to work out if this is indeed from overmethylation, or if it is all in my head. I am not sure which of those 2 options is the better one, but they're the only 2 possible things that I feel could be happening. An actual overmethylation response, OR me getting anxious over everything that's happened.

Side note: I once experimented with taking a viagra. The normal pill I think is like 100mg. So I cut it in quarters and took 25mg. Then when I was having a shower shortly after, I ended up getting lightheaded and freaking out that I was getting some type of bad response to the viagra. In truth, I didn't get a bad response (I tried it again once or twice after to confirm) and it was all in my head - based on fears of what I had read online.

So while I did not think I was that anxious before any of this happened, this whole event(s) has allowed me to look back and come to the realisation that, yes, I have had situations in the past where I have a tendency to over react.

Which is why I am not sure if this is overmethyltion or just me being a silly bastard. I have a feeling it's all in my head, but that is equally as frustrating and worrying - the symptoms of anxiety are still real either way.

Thanks for your time in reading, helping and replying. I really do appreciate your effort and time. It means a lot to me. Thanks!

It seems to me that a one time anxiety response could be "silly bastard" stuff for someone who already has a tendency towards anxiety, but anxiety on a continuing basis has a physiological reason.

I'm wired like that too, and have lots of experience with anxiety - here is what I have worked out:

• If you have lots of GAD mutations you're naturally wired towards having an anxiety response. GAD is responsible for converting glutamate (stimulating) to GABA (calming). If you have the mutations, you won't be converting as well, so you'll naturally have more glutamate and less GABA.
• Other factors like environmental toxins can cause a GABA/glutamate imbalance.
• Excess glutamate in the diet can cause an increase in glutamate. It can be artificial sources like MSG, but there are also naturally occurring glutamate in foods like tomatoes, mushrooms and Parmesan cheese.
• Low serotonin can also contribute to anxiety.
• Other things like either low or high cortisol (adrenal fatigue, or stressed adrenals putting out a lot of cortisol) can also cause anxiety.
• There may be other things like the chemical sensitivities I mentioned in the reply to your other post.
• Overcranking the methylation cycle and B vitamins in general can cause anxiety.

 

[Oberon]

@lakesarecool @caledonia

Hey guys,

Sorry for doubling up on messages here

Today after I had dinner (pretty much my only meal of the day, but it was big) which was from Red Rooster (a chicken sandwich, chicken nuggets, frozen raspberries, apple pie) my anxiety seemed to flare up within about an hour of me consuming the food.

I really hope and Imagine that this is all in my head, but have you guys in all of your past experience here on this forum encountered eating such foods flaring up anxiety symptoms or have anything to do with over driving the methylation cycle further, once it may have already been over driven?

I feel I am on a completely bizarre tangent and thought pattern here and I hope you guys shoot it down haha. Because if I have to start watching out what foods I eat, then holy shit...!

The only other thing I can add to what @caledonia said is that methylation can increase your histamine levels if you do not have enough L-Methionine according to Dr. Lynch. If you eat foods that are histamine activating then you could be exacerbating the issue. You may want to eat a low-histamine diet for a few days to see if it helps alleviate the anxiety.

You can also try taking supplemental L-Methionine (precursor to SAM-E) or SAM-E directly but be aware that they will both drive the methylation cycle and could risk worsening your anxiety too. If you do decide to go this route make sure you start with a very low dose and build up to see how you react. Please read the article here to learn more: http://mthfr.net/preventing-methylfolate-side-effects/2014/11/26/ . It's not super detailed and lacks sources but it may work for you.

 

[krzysiek.s]

@caledonia @lakesarecool

Hey guys

Yesterday was pretty good, took niacin 50mg on an empty stomach in the morning and finally got a flush. Then after that I ate some food, went for a run and had some food. Took smaller doses of niacin, around 30mg throughout the day, and after maybe 3 of those doses I got a much more mild flush again.

Which, for whatever reason, I felt was promising.

I then had dinner at 8PM.
30mg nicotinic acid at 9PM
45mg nicotinic acid at 1030PM
45mg nicotinic acid at 11.20PM

I went to bed that night feeling really good and happy. Because the effects of the anxiety/etc had worn off almost completely. Like back to baseline. The feeling was great.

This morning, I woke up still feeling quite good (maybe 1/10 of symptoms) but after breakfast (5 eggs, half avocado, toast) it has creeped back up on me a little. I have taken:

55mg nicotinic acid at 11.45AM
55mg nicotinic acid at 150PM
55mg nicotinic acid at 3.10PM (which is pretty much right now as I write this post).

No flushes yet today.

I will keep going until I get the flush again.

Does any of this mean anything to you guys?

Also, since I was low on potassium when I first went to the ER (3.5 mmol), clearly methylation was ramped up then, is it also possible trying to raise glutathione levels would help here?

I don't want to be doing too much, just correcting and going back to baseline.

Yesterday I experienced that and felt great but I am bouncing back into the anxiety a bit now.

 

[caledonia]

@caledonia @lakesarecool

Hey guys

Yesterday was pretty good, took niacin 50mg on an empty stomach in the morning and finally got a flush. Then after that I ate some food, went for a run and had some food. Took smaller doses of niacin, around 30mg throughout the day, and after maybe 3 of those doses I got a much more mild flush again.

Which, for whatever reason, I felt was promising.

I then had dinner at 8PM.
30mg nicotinic acid at 9PM
45mg nicotinic acid at 1030PM
45mg nicotinic acid at 11.20PM

I went to bed that night feeling really good and happy. Because the effects of the anxiety/etc had worn off almost completely. Like back to baseline. The feeling was great.

I'm glad you're making progress.

This morning, I woke up still feeling quite good (maybe 1/10 of symptoms) but after breakfast (5 eggs, half avocado, toast) it has creeped back up on me a little. I have taken:

55mg nicotinic acid at 11.45AM
55mg nicotinic acid at 150PM
55mg nicotinic acid at 3.10PM (which is pretty much right now as I write this post).

No flushes yet today.

I will keep going until I get the flush again.

Does any of this mean anything to you guys?

It's possible you could have ramped things up a bit again with the food. Avocado is high in folate. Eggs can have some B12 if you get Eggland Eggs (the kind that say they have B12 in them on the carton). Each egg contains 1mcg of B12. I have to reduce my methylcobalamin intake when I eat them.

Also, since I was low on potassium when I first went to the ER (3.5 mmol), clearly methylation was ramped up then, is it also possible trying to raise glutathione levels would help here?

I don't want to be doing too much, just correcting and going back to baseline.

Yesterday I experienced that and felt great but I am bouncing back into the anxiety a bit now.

I assume you mean by taking a glutathione supplement? I'm not sure how that would increase potassium. The low potassium is due to cell rebuilding, triggered by increasing methylation. It's similar to a pregnant woman who needs more potassium due to the presence of the developing fetus.

At any rate, glutathione supplements, or even the precursor NAC could be problematic for some people.

 

[Eastman]

... The low potassium is due to cell rebuilding, triggered by increasing methylation...

There is an alternative theory on low potassium from increasing methylation.

Hi Rich,

I think a simpler explanation for the need for increased potassium in individuals using very large doses (greater than 2mg) of methylcobalamin (MeCbl, MeB12) and/or L-methylfolate (5-MTHF, Metafolin) is that, by overdriving the Methionine (methylation) Cycle, a large amount of S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe) is being produced that has an aldosterone-related effect via increased methylation capacity as explained in the article below. I think this is actually a better fit for your GD-MCB hypothesis as well.

From, "Toward Understanding the Role of Methylation in Aldosterone-Sensitive Na(+) Transport," News Physiol Sci. 2000 Aug;15:161-165.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11390901 (abstract)
http://physiologyonline.physiology.org/content/15/4/161.full.pdf (full text - direct download):

"Moreover, methylation-promoting agents, such as S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAMe, also abbreviated SAM and AdoMet), increased Na+ entry across the luminal membrane. That the magnitude of increase in Na+ transport was similar with aldosterone and SAMe and that aldosterone and SAMe were not additive suggests that both work through the same signaling pathway. Several other investigators have also now shown that aldosterone increases substrate methylation in epithelia (9, 10, 12). Also confirmed was that SAMe increases Na+channel activity (4, 6, 9). Several investigators have also reported that a pharmacological inhibitor of methylation attenuates aldosterone-induced Na+ reabsorption, showing further a dependency of transport on methylation (4, 10, 11)."

Dr Gregory Russell-Jones of B12 oils also attributes the increased need for potassium to aldosterone.

...the adrenals produce mineralocorticoids like aldosterone - especially important for fluid and electrolyte balance, and as Greg said - when we start using b12 without enough b2 in our system, we get flooded with adrenalin and this triggers massive aldosterone dumping into the bloodstream, which in turn lowers potassium. The reason is because our adrenals don't work properly after years of b12 deficiency and so they don't make enough adrenalin (or cortisol if it goes on long enough). So there are tons of adrenalin precursors hanging around which get triggered when b12 is added...

 

[Oberon]

Thanks @Eastman for sharing that. I've never seen that hypothesis before and it makes a lot of sense.

 

[caledonia]

@Eastman

I have a few observations regarding the increased need for potassium:

1) People with mental health issues only don't get it. People with physical health issues are likely to, although it's not necessarily a given.

2) It can happen with amounts much less than 2g. I only take 20mcg of methylcobalamin and a lot less than that of folate, and I ran into potassium deficiency. It took longer to kick in - more like a few months.

3) I took 3000mg of potassium for about 4 years, and then my need reduced dramatically to 50mg in the past year.

I can see how some of this fits into the hypothesis, but I'm not sure about everything.

It seems like it's linked to adrenal fatigue. In other words, if you already have adrenal fatigue and thus issues with aldosterone, you're going to get potassium deficiency issues when starting methylation.

What would explain the need for potassium lowering over time?